3 Filming & Modelling

Living in London, there aren't many forests to choose from, so we had to go out and find locations. We had a weekend break up in Derbyshire so we took some test shots while we were there - we found some old, rusted machinery which was very useful reference!

We then drove to some forests around Oxted and spent two days walking and filming in different spots.

We narrowed it down to two locations and filmed our piece in both places. I looked back at the footage and ended up choosing the first location - I edited the clips together to get our pre-comped film.

I wanted to get started on modelling, so I started looking at reference for the cogs that would be inside my squirrel. There is an automaton in the film, 'Hugo' which features lots of cogs, so I took some screenshots for me to look at.

After watching some more clockwork models and cogs on youtube, I started sketching my own cogs, trying to think of creative ways for them to move.

Using my squirrel sketch as a guide, I made my model in Maya. We were not planning on making him run or making him do any drastic movements, so it meant that I could design the limbs stylistically without having to worry about them being rigged efficiently. I had a lot of fun modelling the cogs - even though they're not actually connected to the limbs, they still work and mesh together well, so they can keep chugging along regardless of the squirrel's movement.